BLANTYRE, MALAWI — In Malawi, the push for more women members of parliament was dealt a blow when the government said it would not consider a proposal to create 28 automatic seats for women. Malawi ranks among the countries within the South African Development Community and world where women are...

Abstract
Proportional electoral systems tend to be more beneficial for women's descriptive representation than majority systems. However, within proportional systems the gender equality of election outcomes differs, highlighting the importance of studying the actual use of electoral provisions in...

Women in parliament: Assessing the effectiveness of gender quotas in Poland

Gender quotas aim to increase women’s parliamentary representation. However, the effectiveness of quotas varies. This article explores this issue further by examining the case of Poland, where gender quotas were introduced in 2011. The Polish case presents an interesting puzzle. Although the...

Facebook Live Discussion on the Role of Male Champions in Promoting Women's Political Participation and Leadership

Co-organized by iKNOW Politics and International Gender Champions, this Facebook Live discussion brought together a diverse panel of Geneva-based Gender Champions who shared their experiences and views on the role of male champions in promoting women’s political participation and leadership....

The government has rejected all six proposals to give parliament more equal female representation, prepared by the Commons’ women and equalities committee, including fines for parties that do not select enough women as candidates.
The women and equalities committee chair, Maria Miller, said the...

By Renee Laiviera, Commissioner of the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality of Malta, discusses the barriers that keep women from entering the political sphere. She maintains that gender quotas are one of the most effective ways to spur real change.
The current national debate on...

New Kenya Parliament could be dissolved for having less than one-third women

More women have been elected to Parliament this year compared to 2013, but the 12th Parliament might be plunged into an unprecedented constitutional crisis of meeting the two-thirds gender rule.
The full implementation of the two-thirds gender constitutional rule to guarantee gender balance and...

Comparative experiences: Operationalizing the 25% quota for women in Local Government in Sri Lanka

(PRESS RELEASE) – 31 July 2017, Colombo: A discussion forum on operationalizing the 25% quota for women in Local Government, and comparative experiences on advancing women’s political participation was held on Wednesday, 26 July 2017 at the Lighthouse, Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute.
The main...

This opinion piece was originally published by Times of Malta on 18 July 2017 here.
By Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, president of the European Public Health Association and a senior lecturer at the University of Malta.
Over the past days, the issue of women’s under-representation on the local...

A women-only-additional-seats system is the most feasible, fastest and least contentious way of accelerating women’s participation in formal politics, says Dr Maznah Mohamad, an academic and a member of the steering committee on gender and electoral reform convened by the Penang Women’s Development...

The Women in Public Service Project’s “50 x 50” initiative has a new tool to help chart a course toward its goal of gender equality in decision-making positions in public service by 2050. A growing data base on global women’s leadership can now be accessed at data.50x50movement.org. The Wilson...

The clips aim at building understanding among Lebanese stakeholders, and especially political decision-makers, on the range of possible temporary special measures that can be adopted to encourage and increase women’s participation in elections, including but not limited to quota.
It was prepared...

The government of Kenya launched a strategy to support participation of women in politics

The government of Kenya has launched a strategy aimed at supporting greater participation of women in elective politics. This comes ahead of the two third gender rule bill set to be reintroduced in parliament. The bill set to come up for voting for the third time at the National Assembly seeks to...

International Conference at Rutgers University on Resisting Women's Political Leadership

This conference seeks to explore in the nature, origins, and manifestations of resistance to women’s political leadership, taking a global perspective and engaging scholars and practitioners working in a host of related areas. Positioned at the nexus between theory and empirics, the aim is to share...

The clips aim at building understanding among Lebanese stakeholders, and especially political decision-makers, on the range of possible temporary special measures that can be adopted to encourage and increase women’s participation in elections, including but not limited to quota.
It was prepared...

This UNDP clips aim at building understanding among Lebanese stakeholders, and especially political decision-makers, on the range of possible temporary special measures that can be adopted to encourage and increase women’s participation in elections, including but not limited to quota.

Does Women’s Political Presence Matter? Examining the Effects of Descriptive Representation on Symbolic Representation in Uruguay

The research presented in this paper provides useful insights into how increasing women’s descriptive representation within a legislature affects citizens’ interest and engagement in the political process, or their symbolic representation. Uruguay’s first quota law was implemented in the 2014...

Teresa Morais is a Portuguese politician and jurist. She is currently Member of Parliament and Vice President of the Social Democratic Party. She previously held the position of Minister of Culture, Equality and Citizenship. Ms Morais was interviewed by iKNOW Politics on the margins of CSW61 in New...